Guy keeps getting spam calls from phone's previous owner. then discovers the owner is his shady boss: 'He had almost 20 cases filed against him'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jul 26, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Imagine being infuriated by a mystery person for years only to discover that this mystery person is also your boss. It's a bizarre coincidence that is both surprising and unsurprising, in this case, given this dude's temperament and behavior at work.

Before we get into the employee's revenge, some backstory is necessary first. When the Redditor got their new phone, they immediately started getting a barrage of calls and messages from the phone's previous owner, who lived in the same town. He ended up blocking those numbers (for now). Not long after, the Redditor started working under a demanding and difficult manager. We'll let the Original Poster (OP) explain how he figured out that his new manager was also the previous owner of his phone. Keep scrolling below for the subsequent revenge and fallout when OP learned that his boss was up to no good. For more stories like this, check out this post about a feud between Karens over a loud phone conversation at a restaurant.   

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  • 01
    "Previous owner of my number had duped several financial institutions. He later turned out to be [my] boss"
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  • 02
    Phone calls for the previous owner, who turned out to be my smanager
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  • 03
    This is gonna be a long one. TLDR at the end. This could also go in AITA sub. You guys decide. Names have been changed to keep anonymity.
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  • 04
    Mobile phones became common in my country around 2004, just as I finished high school. My parents bought me my first phone, a second-hand Nokia. It was bulky and basic, but I promised myself that someday I'd buy a new phone with my own money.
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  • 05
    When college started, I had a 2-hour daily commute. In high school, I had excelled academically and won several district-level awards.
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  • 06
    These awards were being distributed during my first year of college. One nationalized bank award finally gave me enough money for a new phone. I
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  • 07
    bought a Sony Ericsson K300i and a premium SIM card, not realizing it had been abandoned by its previous owner.
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  • 08
    By the third day, I started receiving calls for a guy named Bitsah from various financial institutions. It turned out the number previously belonged to him
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  • 09
    (and for 20 years, I've been getting these calls). Determined to keep my premium number, I began a routine of blocking wrong numbers. Back then,
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  • 10
    blocking was device- specific, so each time I got a new phone, I had to start over, keeping a list of numbers to block.
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  • 11
    I got my first job after graduating in 2009. Around 2010, I was assigned to a new project with a notorious reputation for burning people out due to a nefarious project manager named Bits. I didn't know his full name for quite a while. He took pride in making our lives a living
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  • 12
    Bits ruled with an iron fist. From the moment his team stepped into the office, they were met with a barrage of emails and messages, each more urgent than the last.
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  • 13
    Bits thrived on creating chaos, often changing project deadlines on a whim, demanding his team work late into the night and through weekends.
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  • 14
    Bits' presence loomed over every task. He insisted on micromanaging every detail, yet was quick to take credit for any successes, no matter how small. Failures,
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    however, were met with his notorious tirades, publicly berating his team and assigning blame without hesitation. His unpredictable temper kept everyone on edge, afraid to make the slightest mistake.
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  • 16
    Meetings were another tool in his arsenal of torment. He scheduled them during lunch breaks and after hours, ensuring no one could escape his grasp.
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  • 17
    These meetings were often pointless, serving only to reinforce his dominance and disrupt any semblance of work-life balance his team might have had.
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  • 18
    His relentless stream of emails continued around the clock, each carrying a thinly veiled threat: perfection or dismissal.
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  • 19
    Under his reign, morale plummeted and burnout soared. Yet Bits remained oblivious, satisfied only by his complete and total control. I was quite ashamed when I learned that he was from the same area as I was and had gone to the same school, though years before me.
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  • 20
    In 2012, our company merged with a parent company. Almost nothing changed personnel-wise,
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  • 21
    but infrastructure-wise we got MS Outlook and an organization view. That was when I first learned about Bits from an organizational hierarchy perspective. His full name was an eye- opener - it was Bitsah.
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  • 22
    Now, the name was common enough, but at the time, mobile numbers had an area-specific pattern, so I already knew that the previous owner of my number was from the same area as me. Still, it could be someone else. I wanted to dig deeper.
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  • 23
    I talked with an old mentor who lived in the same area and had coached several high-school students for the last two decades. He confirmed my suspicions. I won't go into the details,
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  • 24
    but it was evident that Bitsah and Bits were the same person. I had been quite with this unknown person named Bitsah for almost a decade by then, and Bits had been the bane of my (and several others') existence for quite some time.
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  • 25
    This is where the revenge lies. First, I unblocked all the numbers in my phone. I was getting 5-6 calls daily on average, but after unblocking about 150 numbers, it increased to 15- 18. My answering strategy changed drastically. Instead of saying "Wrong Number,"
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  • 26
    I politely explained that the owner had changed his number and provided his current number to update their database. This is where I could be the AH - I also volunteered his manager's number, in case he tries something else.
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  • 27
    The fallout was epic. These people had been trying to find him for almost a decade. Banks had sold his debts to companies that h people for a living to get their money back. It turned out, he had been taking loans in everyone's names (his wife, parents,
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  • 28
    uncles, aunts) and giving everyone that same number. He was evading credit card debt and loans of upwards of $200k (equivalent in USD, but it's a Oload of money where we are from). Apparently he had almost 20 cases filed against him, but no one could find him. Probably why he thought he could walk on water.
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  • 29
    There are multiple versions of what happened at the office when his manager started to get calls about him. He was let go about 2 months later, haven't heard from him since.
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  • 30
    TLDR: Previous owner of my number had duped several financial institutions. He later turned out to be my boss. I informed the banks of his new number and his manager's number, leaving his career in shambles.
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pro revenge workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job revenge work Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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